Earlier this spring I attended my mother-in-law’s graduation ceremony at the University of Buckingham, where she was being awarded an MA in history of art.

今年春天早些时候，我参加了我的岳母在英国白金汉大学(University of Buckingham)的毕业典礼，她被授予了艺术史硕士学位。

The individual chosen to address his fellow graduands was the retired British judge Sir Oliver Popplewell, who chaired the inquiry into the Bradford City stadium fire and presided over the libel case that led to the former UK minister Jonathan Aitken going to prison for perjury.

被选中向同期毕业生发表演讲的是退休的英国法官奥利弗•波普尔韦尔爵士(Sir Oliver Popplewell)，他曾领导对布拉福德城(Bradford City)球场大火的调查，并曾审理导致前部长级官员乔纳森•艾特肯(Jonathan Aitken)因作伪证而入狱的诽谤案。

The 88-year-old was collecting nothing less than his fifth degree, a masters in military history. His speech began with a joke, recounting how, when embarking on his philosophy, politics and economics degree at Oxford, he was given a lecture on it being merely a prelude to a larger obligation — the solemn duty of giving back to the community. The punchline: he was in his mid-seventies at the time and had rather felt that he was all done on the giving-back front.

现年88岁的奥利弗爵士竟然是在领取他的第5个学位——军事史博士学位。他的演讲以一个笑话开头，他讲述了他在牛津大学(University of Oxford)攻读哲学、政治学和经济学学位的经历之初，他听了一堂讲座，主题是学业不过是履行一项更大的义务的序曲——回馈社会的庄严责任。笑点：他当时都七十多岁了，他感觉自己已经在回馈社会方面尽到了责任。

It was hard not to be inspired. Sir Oliver started accumulating degrees in 1950 with a BA in law at Cambridge, which was followed by an LLB at the same university (his other degree is a masters in the history of international relations from the London School of Economics).

很难不被这样的事例鼓舞。奥利弗爵士在1950年开始收集学位，那一年他获得了剑桥大学(University of Cambridge)的法学文学士学位，后来又在剑桥获得了LLB法学学士学位（他的另一个学位是从伦敦政治经济学院(LSE)获得的国际关系史博士学位）。

Likewise, the energy of the twentysomethings picking up their first degrees was stirring, especially the Bosnians who had come over as part of a partnership between Buckingham and the Sarajevo School of Science and Technology. Yet the relative lack of fortysomethings and fiftysomethings in gowns and mortar boards meant that there was also something slightly depressing about the occasion.

同样的，那些拿到平生第一个学位的二十多岁的年轻人的活力也让人感动，尤其是那些借助白金汉大学和萨拉热窝科技学院(Sarajevo School of Science and Technology)合作办学来学习的波斯尼亚人。然而穿着学士袍，带着学士帽的人中，四、五十岁的人相对较少，这意味着这个场面中也有一些让人略感沮丧的事情。

Perhaps it was self-interest on my part as I am a member of the forty-something group myself, but it strongly suggested that education now straddles two age groups — young adults and the retired. For the former, it is a means to advancement; for the latter, it is a noble leisure pursuit.

作为40多岁的人群中的一员，这可能是出于我自利的一种考虑，但这也鲜明地体现出，教育跨立于两个年龄群体中——刚进入成年期的年轻人和退休人士。对前者，这是事业进步的手段；对后者，这是一种高尚的休闲追求。

For the dream of life-long learning to be realised fully, those in the 35-60 age group must also be given the opportunity to refine and revise their skills throughout their careers, which could well stretch into their seventies.

如果要完全实现终身学习的梦想，那些35-60岁的人应该得到在职业生涯中改善和更新他们的技能的机会，他们的职业生涯很可能延伸到他们70多岁的时候。

This is not happening enough. Executive education has traditionally been one niche in which the middle aged have been able to polish their skills. But the supercharged intensity of the modern office makes it hard to get away from daily duties.

这方面的进展还不够。高管教育传统上是中年人改善自身技能的小众市场。但现代职场高负荷高强度的工作让人们很难从日常工作中抽身。

Glenn Hubbard, dean of Columbia Business School, ruefully observes that its MBA graduates have a lifetime entitlement to come back and sit in on any class — but they almost never find the time. “People don’t take me up on it because they are busy,” he says.

哥伦比亚大学商学院(Columbia Business School)院长格伦•哈伯德(Glenn Hubbard)有点感伤地表示，该校的MBA毕业生终身享有回到学校，进入任何一个课堂听课的权利——但他们几乎永远都抽不出时间。“人们不接受我的这个邀请，因为他们太忙了，”他说。

Likewise, Harvard Business School’s venerable Advanced Management Program for executives used to last 13 weeks but needed to be condensed to a more manageable eight weeks (at a cost of about $80,000 a course nowadays).

同样的，哈佛商学院(Harvard Business School)针对高管的负有盛名的高级管理课程过去持续13周，但需要浓缩到更易于安排的8周（课程费用现在达到8万美元左右）。

Meanwhile, a report by the UK’s Institute of Directors in April illustrated how patchy the provision of education to mid-career staff is across the workforce, rather than just at the top of the hierarchy. It pointed out that UK company spending on in-work training had declined by between a quarter and a half since the 1990s, albeit with a bit of an uptick recently.

同时，英国董事学会(Institute of Directors) 4月发布的一份报告显示，和职业体系顶端的情况不同，在整个劳动力大军中，对职业生涯中期的员工所提供的教育参差不齐。该报告指出，英国公司在在职培训上的支出自上世纪90年代以来下降了四分之一到二分之一，尽管近来有所回升。

Would-be mature students are turned off by the sheer difficulty of fitting formal study into their busy lives, the report observed, adding that businesses were understandably keen to reduce spending on education.

该报告指出，想要学习的成年人因为无法从忙碌的生活中安排出时间进行正式学习而放弃。报告又称，企业希望减少教育支出也是可以理解的。

The IoD recommended tax breaks to encourage companies to allow staff to keep learning — with even bigger incentives dangled in front of smaller employers that can find it especially difficult to let workers take time out to study for even the odd day or two.

董事学会推荐通过税收减免来鼓励企业允许员工不断学习——并用更大的激励措施来吸引那些尤其难以让员工抽出时间，哪怕是偶尔的一两天来学习的规模较小的雇主。

That might help. But technology, another preoccupation of the IoD report, is likely to help more. The internet is allowing new and old educational providers to experiment with ways of teaching that are better attuned to today’s working patterns.

这可能有所帮助，但董事学会报告中的另一项考虑因素——技术，有可能提供更大的帮助。互联网让新旧教育提供商试验能够更好适应当今工作模式的种种教学方式。

The changes it will fashion could be evolutionary or they could blow the whole system apart and replace it with something radically different. Sir Anthony Seldon, the University of Buckingham’s reformist vice-chancellor, feels that significant change is necessary.

由此带来的变化可能是逐进的，或者也可能彻底摧毁整个系统，然后用一些截然不同的东西取而代之。身为改革派的白金汉大学校长安东尼•塞尔顿爵士(Sir Anthony Seldon)感到，有必要进行重大改变。

While we wait to see how the trend plays out, I can only hope that his institution keeps offering its masters in garden history. On the graduation day I attended, it was one of the courses where participation was most skewed towards the over-60s.

在我们对这股潮流的未来发展拭目以待的时候，我只希望他的学校能够继续提供园艺史硕士课程。在我参加的那个毕业日上，这是毕业生中逾60岁的人比例最高的课程之一。

Good for them — my wife would love to follow suit when she retires from the stresses of executive life.

这对他们很好——我的妻子在从充满压力的高管生活退休之后，也会想要效仿他们。